False Promise

With his speech tonight, President Obama will share some good news - the success of the Bush administration's surge policy, and the pullout that has been executed according to the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated with the Iraqis by President Bush.

Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq’s Security Forces and support its government and people. That is what we have done. We have removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. We have closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis.

Rather than present this honestly, the president is pretending that the withdrawal has something to do with his campaign promise to withdraw all troop from Iraq within 16 months of his inauguration.

The promise to get troops out within 16 months was made even as Iraq was melting down at its highest level of violence, designed to outflank Hillary as the candidate with the strongest commitment to ending the war. When he took office, the surge that he opposed had succeeded in calming the country, and even so, he isn't planning on getting the troops out until next summer, two and a half years after his swearing in.

Any attempt to appear to have met the terms of his campaign promise is fraudulent, which is perhaps why the president is so eager to pretend that the matter is closed.